Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz gives Washington 30 days to prove itself

Why Starbucks's CEO wrote a book about veterans
Why Starbucks's CEO wrote a book about veterans

Washington, you have 30 days to get your act together.

Starbucks (SBUX) CEO Howard Schultz is putting dysfunctional DC on notice, calling on Congress and the White House to "stop the polarization and dysfunction."

"Washington has let the country down," he said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Instead, Schultz wants to see "civility and conversation and cooperation."

"If we don't get that in the next 30 days, the business community is going to do what they've done for the last 10 years: dismiss Washington," he said. "But we can't have that."

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It's not the first time the Starbucks head has called foul amid political bickering.

As the nation teetered on the edge of the so-called fiscal cliff in 2012, Schultz urged lawmakers to "come together" by having DC-area Starbucks baristas write that message on coffee cups.

A year later, while Congress bickered into a two-week-plus government shutdown, he said he was "utterly disappointed by the level of irresponsibility and dysfunction" in the capital city.

And during the 2012 campaign, he and dozens of other CEOs pledged to cut off political donations until lawmakers "stop the partisan gridlock."

starbucks come together
Schultz sent this message to Washington amid the fiscal cliff standoff.

Since the economic recovery is still looking for traction, it likely won't be the last time Schultz weighs in, either.

"I feel as if the economic situation that we are dealing with is directly linked to the situation in Washington in which there's been a fracturing of trust and confidence for over 10 years," he said Sunday.

The solution in the short term, he said, is for business leaders like himself to "to take the lead and do what we can to move the country forward."

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